At the Price of Our Friendship
by Tallemy
Summary: We all know that Tsunami is afraid of flying. But how did they even get him aboard an airplane? Tsunami/Otomura


**A/N: I don't even know why did I write this. I really like this pairing, but well, there are thing that I still have to practice. Maybe I shouldn't write stories between exams. **

* * *

The man of the sea was strong, courageous, daring and he would never back away even from the fiercest storms. Yet he had one weakness, which he hasn't really told anyone except his closest friends and relatives. Hey, it wasn't necessary until know. After all, there wasn't too much chance for him to ever see an airplane up close. He was satisfied with watching them landing on the nearest airport, possibly really far away from him.

"Dude, don't even dream about it! I won't do this! Not in a hundred years!"

Tsunami stared at the 'nightmare of all surfers' with a startled expression. A few tons heavy, blue aluminum giant with yellow thunders on its sides. The others were all aboard already, but the surfer chickened out right before he reached the stairs and declined to join them.

"Oh, you will." corrected Otomura, who stood next to him, as he gently patted Tsunami's back and pushed him forward "Off you go!"

When Hibiki asked Otomura to accompany his friend to the airport, he felt that something like this would happen. He knew about Tsunami's partly irrational and partly immature fear of airplanes already. When they were little, the boy panicked at the thought of Otomura flying over to Hawaii with his parents. So Jousuke buried him in the sand, leaving only his head free. Luckily his parents found him, so they didn't had to delay their vacation. Then, after a week long suffering Tsunami looked at him, like he just returned from the Bermuda Triangle.

But why was he so scared of flying again? Gakuya couldn't recall any accidents with airplanes in the Tsunami family and he never traveled this way. So what makes him think that his first flight will end in disaster? He behaved as if they've chosen some anonymous low-cost flight company or an Air-tanic instead of a luxury airplane.

"Nope." was his clear, somehow hysterical response. "No! No! No"

In Tsunami's head the variations that came into picture got worse and worse... Planes tend to crash, slam into the ground, blow up, fall apart, burst out in flames. They are true danger-sources. In contrast, he could hardly break his bones by crashing into the sea from 8000 feet high. The sea is not like that. The sea isn't a death flight. You don't even have to leave the ground for it. Of course it has its own dangers too, but that's another matter...

Otomura eyes clearly showed that he was getting bored of persuading Tsunami. They tried to kick him in by force, but he escaped, as if the machine would explode at any moment. There came plan B, starring the best friend, Otomura Gakuya.

"You whine like a five years old. It's not even that far."

"Then I can swim it down."

"With plane. For the sake of deaf and hard of hearing I will repeat it again: PLANE."

"Look if I catch a good wave and ride it, I can even get there before they do!" Tsunami tried to explain it with his hands. His right hand symbolized the sea, while the left hand was himself. The current picked him up and suddenly he was at the finish line. True success.

"Cool story, but do you know the way?" asked Otomura suspiciously as he adjusted his glasses.

Tsunami grinned widely. Suddenly he had more confidence.

"I'm sure the sea will show me."

Otomura looked at him like he was insane. Perhaps when the waves threw him to the rocks on the beach, he'd lost a few wheels and now his tiny brain couldn't work properly anymore. He finally had a chance to show himself to the world and now the idiot wants to role-play as Columbus with a surfboard.

He pulled off his headset. Now it was hanging around his neck with loud static buzzing from both sides. The was able to give up music temporary for demonstrating an unusual kind of seriousness, and on some level, he expected this from the other too.

He gently grabbed Tsunami's shoulders; however no matter how hard he tried to stay calm, the loose grip quickly became stronger. It was the right time to do something unexpected. He needed to add an extra beat, to get him off his rhythm. Something that has never appeared in the boy's sheet music. But in meantime his own rhythm sped up by fifty percent.

Tsunami hasn't given any reaction as the music-addict boy touched their lips together.

After they made contact Tsunami completely froze and stood like an ice statue. Even the breath was caught in his throat. It took his brain some time before he realized what was happening to him, but after that he pleasantly swam with the tide.

The whole kiss was so unreal. When they broke apart bright red slowly spread all over his face and his ears as he stared at Otomura in disbelief. The kiss KO'd the part of his brain what was responsible for logical thinking. Not that it was ever helpful right now.

"Could you rise an octave higher from the ground level?" asked Gakuya when he recovered from the experience. It was a bit too spontaneous even for him. He planned out already that his confession would take place at the beach in Okinawa. At sunset. While they listen to his Mp3. Yet the beat came out like this.

The air between them was definitely getting uncomfortable with each passing moment. Somehow Otomura got the feeling that he needs to clarify some things. He slowly sighed as he tried to give a short explanation.  
"My heart beats semiquavers every time I see you." he said finally in his own style when he saw Tsunami's face. Too bad the boy didn't really understand what a semiquaver was.

"Wait... What?" He'd understand that it was a confession, or among the lines, but that unknown word could mean anything.

"Look. I really love you, okay?" he shot back in a way that left Tsunami speechless "You always say things like: people should ride the waves what life gives them. How can you be so blind? You can't even see your own waves. I was worried too about this… Still, I can't wait for you to go to the world. So don't be a drama queen and take that plane!

Tsunami hesitated, but nodded without a word. He stumbled up on the stairs with shaky legs and uncertainly looked back from the door. That kiss surprised him way too much and he still had to reorder his thoughts. So what was his relationship with Gakuya now? He just did it for fun or…?

"Good luck! I highly recommend you to come back home!" Otomura waved.

"Dude... Are you serious?"

Gakuya just blinked beneath his glasses. The headphones covered his ears again, but he seemed to understand what Tsunami meant by his question. He casually smiled and simply said with a single rhyme:

"I'll wait here on this site, when your plane takes the back-flight here."

* * *

**Note:  
-Semiquaver : **a musical note having the time value of a sixteenth of a whole note. There is a really short pause between the notes.


End file.
